Metrics at Work: Journalism and the Contested Meaning of Algorithms by Angèle Christin

Author:Angèle Christin
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2020-05-14T00:00:00+00:00

Compensation at LaPlace: Flat Rates and Their Exceptions

On the other side of the Atlantic, LaPlace also needed as many writers as possible in order to publish more and faster. In a similar manner to what we saw in New York, the Parisian editors increased the number of external contributors they worked with. Yet instead of having a sliding compensation scale based on the seniority and skill of the freelancer, LaPlace put in place a flat rate for all freelance pieces: 120 euros per article, regardless of author, length, quality, or popularity. Such a flat rate was highly unusual in the French media landscape, where most news organizations paid their freelancers by the page, or feuillet.13 Freelancers criticized this system. For example, Gabriella, who returned to freelance for LaPlace after leaving her post as managing editor, and Anne, a regular freelance contributor, both complained about their compensation:

GABRIELLA: I know that a freelance piece will be paid way under the market rate at LaPlace. They don’t use the regular freelance rates, which are rates by the page. Instead, they have flat rates, 120 euros for the article, whatever the length. Well, it’s not enough.

ANNE: The rate used to be 100 euros. Now it’s 120 euros. It’s not well paid, because it’s 120 euros for the whole package. . . . When you work with a photographer, you have to share, so that’s 60 euros each, it’s really not much. But I knew that when I started to work as a freelancer for them. They don’t have any money.

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